Ours is a culture of discontent. We want what we do not have. If it’s hot, we long for cool weather. If we are short, we envy the tall. We complain of our academic abilities, paycheck, children’s behavior, house, gender. It seems that no matter the situation, we are discontent. This is a far cry from the attitude of the apostle Paul. From a prison cell, Paul wrote the following words: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:11b–13, English Standard Version). In no circumstance are we content. In all circumstances Paul was content. How is this possible? Should we strive for such contentment? Before we answer these questions, we need to know first what contentment is.
What Is Contentment?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, contentment is feeling or persona. If we look back several hundred years, Webster himself wrote that contentment a state of mind. The distinction between the two definitions is important because, though we can control them, we do not choose our emotions, but we can choose to have a certain state of mind. Such is the case with the apostle Paul. He “learned” contentment. Contentment is therefore best described as a certain chosen state of mind, one that is quiet, resting, satisfied.1 While this sounds like a lofty ideal, it is abstract. What exactly does Paul mean by “I have learned . . . to be content”?
Paul lived nearly every extreme. He was rich, popular, influential. He was impoverished, homeless, hated. He was beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned (2 Cor. 11:21–33; Phil. 3:5–6). Through these variations in circumstances, Paul learned to be content, no matter his circumstances. In other words, he did not wish for what he did not have. Instead, he embraced his present state with quiet acceptance. Does that mean he, like a Stoic, shunned all earthly attachments and pleasures? Did his contentment lie in his detachment from people, place, property? In other words, was he content despite his circumstances? If that were the case, we would expect Paul to write, “I have learned despite whatever the situation I am to be content.” Instead he writes, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” Furthermore, we know from other writings that his heart is bound up with—not stoically removed from—the churches under his care (2 Cor. 11:28). “His ‘self-sufficiency’ and equanimity in meeting all life’s demands has not come through a mechanical self-discipline or fixed resolution such as the Stoic practiced . . . it was his in union with a personal Lord.”2 Paul was able to accept peacefully, embrace, thrive in—not despite—any circumstance because he knew he did not face them alone.
Notice what Paul says after his declaration that he has learned contentment. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (2 Cor. 11:13). We often divorce this verse from its context and plaster it to our locker room walls and cubicles. The “all things” become whatever personal goal we are trying to obtain. However, we must not miss the logical progression in this passage. Though we can rightfully declare “I can do all things through Christ,” Paul is specifically speaking about learning contentment. Paul’s point here is that through his relationship with and reliance on Christ, he learns contentment, for he knows that the God working through him is both and a good provider.
Knowing God
The Scripture is replete with passages evidencing God’s sovereignty (see, for example, Col. 1:16–17; Isa. 45:7–9; Prov. 16:33; Job 42:2; Lam. 3:37–39). He orchestrates the affairs of men from the mightiest to the weakest. He establishes kings and destroys nations. He has decreed the number of our days and circumstances of each day. His decisions stand, though all others fall. The Westminster Catechism summarizes God’s sovereignty, or providence, well: “God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy” (WCF 5.1). Paul was able to find comfort in these truths because he knew that God is also a good provider.
God never ordains circumstances we are ill-equipped or unable to handle. Rather, he gives us everything we need to live (even thrive) in any situation (see, for example, Ps. 34:4; Gen. 28:15; Deut. 31:6, 8; Josh. 1:5; 2 Cor. 9:8). What is this everything that he has given? Is it food, clothing, comfortable living arrangements? If so, Paul could not declare that he had learned contentment when he lacked food, clothing, or shelter. Rather, the everything God provides is himself (John 14:16–17; Matt. 28:19–20). If we have him, we have all we need (2 Peter 1:3). For we have the Holy Spirit always at our disposal to give us anything we need: hope, peace, joy, patience (John 14:26; Acts 1:8; Matt. 10:19–20). Furthermore, even if we face man’s enemy—death—we can look confidently beyond it to eternal life with Christ. But God does not only provide for us spiritually. He also meets all of our material needs. During times of poverty, sickness, or persecution, we may question God’s provision. “If God really provided for my material needs, why am I hungry, cold, sick?” Though we may not understand God’s provision, we can be sure that it is sufficient—he promised (Phil. 4:19; Matt. 6:31–32; Luke 12:24–26). As someone once told me, if God has not given it, we do not need it.
So God both ordains our circumstances and gives us everything we need to embrace them with quiet contentment. Indeed, that is why Paul is able to “cheerfully and patiently submit to God’s most wise disposal of him, knowing his most righteous and tenderhearted Father would never leave nor forsake him, having already given him greater things than any of these sublunary ones he could stand in need of, Rom. VIII:32.”3 In short, Paul learned contentment because he became a student of Christ. He turned his eyes from himself and fixed them on his Savior. In the words of one author: “This, ultimately, is the ‘secret of contentment’: to know Christ but to press on to know Him more in all areas of life. When we know Him and press on to know Him better, we become like Him. When we know Him and press on to know Him better, we rest in His providence and provision, and we follow His call for us—not seeking our own agenda, but content with His.”4
What does all of this mean for us practically? How can we, like Paul, learn contentment in any and all circumstances? We cultivate our relationship with God. The more we study his Word, commune with him in prayer, receive his means of grace each Lord’s Day, the more our confidence in him will grow. We will begin to trust him more and rely on him more each day. We will see and experience his sovereignty and perfect provision. We will see how he orchestrates each circumstance to sanctify us, draw us to himself, and make us look more like Jesus. The more we study these truths and the source of them, the more we will learn contentment. For, no matter the circumstance, we will have such an unshakeable peace that we can say with the hymn writer:
When peace, like a river,
attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast
taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.5
1. See Webster’s Dictionary, 1828 edition. 2. Philippians, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, ed. R. V. G. Tasker (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959), 177. 3. Matthew Poole, A Commentary on the Holy Bible, vol. 3, Matthew-Revelation (McLean, VA: MacDonald Publishing Company, 1985), 703. 4. William Barclay, “The Secret of Contentment,” April 2, 2012, https://www. ligonier.org/learn/articles/the-secret-ofcontentment, accessed November 4, 2021. 5. “When Peace, Like a River,” Horatio Gates Spafford, 1873.Elisabeth Bloechl is a member of Orthodox Presbyterian Church Hammond, is a house cleaner and aspiring writer in Griffith, IN.